> Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.
I don't personnaly use Skype for various reasons, but for the people who do, let's hope that's true.
Microsoft to acquire Skype
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Re: Microsoft to acquire Skype
#12The official announcement. I wonder how interoperability between various VOIP solutions will turn out with MS on board. I am one of these dreamer of a multiprotocol VOIP solution. Like emails actually.
Or telephones.
In my eyes this is Facebook's missed opportunity. Facebook is a sufficiently powerful brand to be able to negotiate exclusive deals with operators around the world to launch a VOIP phone relying on flat rate data only, replacing the address book with a subset of your social graph and SMS with Facebook Messaging. Such a move could have been very disruptive towards voice phone operators if paired with 170M desktop clients and the Skype protocol.
It's a strategy Facebook could adopt without Skype, but with the two brands in unison they could rule the market. I don't see Microsoft being able to do the same.
Re: Microsoft to acquire Skype
#13Why is it that I like Skype less on the other side of this announcement? It's not that I'm anti-MSFT; I just like communications software like Skype to be vendor neutral, competing on innovation and working to keep as many platforms + devices as possible at parity. I don't want someone to use Skype as leverage to try to get me to switch platforms. I'm more likely to drop Skype and be left looking for an alternative.
There may be alternatives that cover Skype functionality at least partly if you have the skills and nerves to use them (based on SIP or jingle). But for most of the 170 million connected users, including those who use Linux, there is no alternative to Skype if they want the same featureset (im, voip, video, encryption, conference calls,...). Sad but true.
Re: Microsoft to acquire Skype
#14[deleted]
Re: Microsoft to acquire Skype
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a really good question - I made the note elsewhere [1] that I was really surprised at 663 million users, because that would make Skype more popular than Facebook (by measurements of popularity that don't include swearing the calls that start glitching ten minutes in). 170 million I can believe more readily. It could just be the difference between users and registered accounts (I know several people who've set up…
Facebook has 650M active users. They always measure and cite active users, to their credit they do not fudge around with the numbers in their PR Skype is 170M active (quarterly, Facebook is monthly), and 680M total registered. A lot more people have given Skype their payment details than have Facebook - which results in Skype monetizing a lot better (but still not awesome monetization - yet, but it is improving). Edi…
How many registered users does FB have in total?
Re: Microsoft to acquire Skype
#16Why is it that I like Skype less on the other side of this announcement? It's not that I'm anti-MSFT; I just like communications software like Skype to be vendor neutral, competing on innovation and working to keep as many platforms + devices as possible at parity. I don't want someone to use Skype as leverage to try to get me to switch platforms. I'm more likely to drop Skype and be left looking for an alternative.
There may be alternatives that cover Skype functionality at least partly if you have the skills and nerves to use them (based on SIP or jingle). But for most of the 170 million connected users, including those who use Linux, there is no alternative to Skype if they want the same featureset (im, voip, video, encryption, conference calls,...). Sad but true.
GChat is pretty idiot-proof, and platform-independent.
Re: Microsoft to acquire Skype
#17Hopefully Microsoft is swooping in to save Skype from the death-spiral it's been heading towards for the last few years. There really is a lot of room for improvement (software-wise) and I'm going to give MSFT the benefit of the doubt for the moment.
Re: Microsoft to acquire Skype
#18On a side note, why has no serious competitor to Skype appeared? Given the maturity of the tech involved (its just VOIP) and the size of the pie, i'd have thought there would be more competition for a slice.
Re: Microsoft to acquire Skype
#19On a side note, why has no serious competitor to Skype appeared? Given the maturity of the tech involved (its just VOIP) and the size of the pie, i'd have thought there would be more competition for a slice.
Network effects, mostly. Pretty much everyone in the market has already got Skype, and it works well enough to make switching a greater pain than keeping on using it. And it's entirely unworkable to convince friends, colleagues and clients to all switch over.
Re: Microsoft to acquire Skype
#20On a side note, why has no serious competitor to Skype appeared? Given the maturity of the tech involved (its just VOIP) and the size of the pie, i'd have thought there would be more competition for a slice.
> its just VOIP
Strength in brand. Most common-folk users have no idea what voip is. You can't compete with Skype by just doing a voip client - if that were true then you would see Google Talk, Facetime etc. eating into Skype market share, and not Skype growing 30% per quarter.
For many people, Skype is online communication and messaging. It has become a verb and one of the most recognizable online brands alongside Google, Facebook etc.